Wednesday, January 22, 2014

How to say that you prefer something in Finnish? Or do something rather than something else? Here are some useful expressions with mielellään, mieluummin and mieluiten. All those forms origin from mieli. I think.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

If you don't have time to read the whole post, here's the idea in a nutshell: Pay very close attention to the pronunciation of näin, if you want to say I saw. It is awkwardly close to nain, which means I had sex. Here's the classic mistake:

(My sister lives in Fontainebleau and she would like to practice her French either close to her home or in downtown Paris. She can help you with Finnish, English, Norwegian or horses. Leave a message in the comments, and I'll give you her contact information.)

The consonant gradation is a topic that hardly ever causes any joy in students. The consonants just seem to come and go as they want, and there's already enough annoying rules to remember. In short, it's all about the syllable structure: If a syllable ends with a vowel, it's open, and there's a strong grade in the beginning of the syllable, or between the two syllables.If a syllable ends with a consonant, it's closed, and there's a weak grade in the beginning of it.Here's a link where you can check out which consonant combinations change and how. The change happens only when the consonants are between the two last syllables of the word when the word is in the basic form. (Of course, knowing how the Finnish words are divided into syllables is another story.)

I'll demonstrate with kuppi, a cup, where pp alternates with p.

kup-pi = a cup (Strong grade in the beginning of an open syllable.)

2 kup-pi-a = two cups (Strong grade in the beginning of an open syllable.)

ku-pit = cups (Weak grade in the beginning of a closed syllable.)

ku-pis-sa = in a cup (Weak grade in the beginning of a closed syllable.)

kup-piin = into the cup (Wait. Here it goes differently, but why? Well, it used to be kup-pi-hin, and still is in some dialects. The syllable used to be open, so that's why there's a strong grade.)

I know, it's a bit confusing. And there's even a thing called a reverse consonant change! Then again, it's just one or two consonants, and usually people will understand you even if you'd say matot (rugs) instead of madot (worms). Remember that the consonant change only occurs with k, p and t. Don't try to apply it to all consonants, no matter how excited you get about it.

Here are some sentences organized according to whether the grade is strong or weak. The example word is sänky, a bed.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Oh my. I just found this website when I was looking for something about Finnish pronunciation. It aims to have All the words in the world. Pronounced. I'm already hooked! You can both listen to the words and contribute to the site by recording individual words in your own mother tongue. It's very easy and fast to use.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Hyvää uutta vuotta! Happy new year, or, literally, have a good new year. If you live in Finland, do not miss the new comedy show Siskonpeti. It starts today on Yle 2 at 21.00, and it is said to be very funny. You can also watch it later in Yle Areena. Another funny tv show is Putous, starting on January 11. Hyvät ja huonot uutiset is also very popular.